New coach not for the half-hearted

Brian Sutter knows how to handle bulls, and he knows how to handle hockey players.

August 20, 2001|By Steve Rosenbloom, Tribune staff reporter.

RED DEER, Alberta — The sky this summer morning is storybook blue. The temperature is a Chamber of Commerce 70. The horizon for this central Alberta town about 30 kilometers north of the Gopher Hole Museum is a panorama of the most spectacular blue spruce going.

Perfect conditions to prove what a lot of people have long believed: Brian Sutter is crazy.

The old farmer and new Blackhawks coach is talking on his cell phone to new/old Hawks winger Steve Thomas, sweating through his shirt, standing knee-high in bull waste, carrying on in the middle of a pen on one of his four 320-acre farms while five snorting bulls make it clear they will not be put on hold when it comes to feeding time.

"Stevie was wired about coming to the Hawks," Sutter said. "Stevie said one reason he came here was because I had a reputation that I never quit, that my teams never quit."

Thomas keeps talking, the bulls keep snorting, and frankly, now would be a good time for Sutter to quit yakking and start feeding the angry Angus.

"A couple of them, I knew they wouldn't hurt me," Sutter said. "A couple of them, I wasn't sure if they'd kill me. These guys would just as soon run over me, but I have the pail [of feed]."

Sutter says this with his big brown eyes growing ever wider and with half a smile, just enough to make you uneasy. It is a look that Hawks players had better get used to.

Such as the time his St. Louis team was getting ripped by the Kings in Los Angeles. During the second intermission, Sutter broke a stick in the dressing room and proceeded to wave it around menacingly, then jammed the jagged end under each player's chin, telling them exactly what he thought of their play and their masculinity.

"I will never, ever--and never, ever is a long time--tolerate a half-hearted effort," Sutter said.

After that game, Sutter walked into the shower, suit and all, and told everyone to be on the bus in 10 minutes.

"I said, `If you're not on it, don't bother coming to the airport, either, because you're not coming back to St. Louis with us,"' Sutter said.

Crazy? Maybe, but Sutter's undertalented Blues started a long winning streak the next game and became a team that would challenge for the President's Trophy as the NHL's best.

Was it also crazy when Sutter started sure-fire Hall of Fame defenseman Raymond Bourque at center? Maybe, but Sutter's undertalented Boston Bruins would record the franchise's top three seasons in nearly a quarter-century. Was it also crazy when Sutter took a third-line winger from Montreal and put him on his first line and on the point on the power play? Maybe, but Sutter's undertalented Flames came within a weekend in consecutive years of making the playoffs behind rising star Valeri Bure.

Apparently it's just a matter of being able to handle the bull.

The family

Brian Sutter lovingly calls his wife "Momma," respectfully addresses every male as "Sir" or "Mister," and seems willing to do anything for anybody at any time.

His mother considers him "distant."

"I can talk to Darryl, Duane and Brent easier," said Grace Sutter, the matriarch of the famed Viking, Alberta, family that sent a record six brothers to the NHL. "Maybe I'm tuned in to them easier, but Brian's not as easy to talk to.

"Brian only came back one year after leaving home (at 15 to play junior hockey in Red Deer 30 years ago). Brian's kind of distant. Some of the others never miss a birthday. Brian's always had his jobs."

Grace is sitting in the kitchen of Brian and Judy Sutter's house in the resort area of Sylvan Lake. She made the 2 1/2-hour drive down from Viking in advance of the annual Sutter Fund Charity Golf Classic. "I cut the grass for seven hours on the farm so I could come," said Grace, who is one of 13 family members tromping around Brian and Judy's house this evening.

But that's nothing compared with the Sutter family reunion the week before, when they rented a campsite in the Canadian Rockies and stuffed 39 family members into the cabins.

"No fights," Duane said with a smile, hearkening to the daily battles they had as kids.

Duane followed Brian and Darryl to the NHL, preceding Brent and the twins, Rich and Ron. Brian, 45, becomes the fifth Sutter to come to the Hawks organization (Ron is the loner). But the brother they call "Ug" (yep, short for "Ugly") remains the pioneer in the family.

"He gave us the insight, what to expect in camp," Duane said. "There's more respect for him than the rest of us--his accomplishments, his sweater's retired [by the Blues], he was a captain, he was an All-Star."